The Pros and Cons to a DIY Wedding
One common trend among brides for the 2016 wedding scene is the DIY wedding. With sites such as Pinterest, the Knot and the DIY Network, crafting your whole wedding from start to finish seems like it’d be the best choice, right? From chalkboards to mason jars, the culture behind personalizing every aspect of your special day is both exciting and intimidating. Although there are some definite benefits to creating your wedding from scratch, there are also some major cons when it comes to attempting to do everything yourself. Whether you’re interested in doing a DIY wedding for yourself or a loved one, here are some pros and cons that you’ll definitely want to keep in mind.
Pros
Aside from saving money and finally putting your glue gun to use, there are many different pros to planning a DIY wedding. You may find that this project opens up an unrecognized talent of crafting, or maybe that you’re just a really great delegator of tasks! Either way, you’ll find that the good may just outweigh the bad…
DIY Saves Money
The main reason why any bride would opt to craft all of the decorations for her wedding herself is to ultimately save money. I mean, at the end of the day who isn’t satisfied with knowing that they achieved a $10,000 wedding with a $5,000 budget? Frugal weddings are hip, as they show off your taste without you having to spend a whole mortgage and a half on simple things like décor and food. This will give you the opportunity to put more money towards more meaningful things like your honeymoon or even your dress.
DIY Shows Your Personality
DIY weddings are a great way to show off your personality. Whether you’re a glam diva or a minimalist, creating a wedding that is the definition of everything you love will make your day even more special. Some great DIY themes have stemmed from everyday things such as libraries, Harry Potter, carnivals, and even superheroes. Spending the time to design your décor and theme the way you’d like will give your guests a more personable experience, and you’ll have the chance to weed out the things you don’t really need.
Cons
Something that no one realizes is that DIY weddings are a lot of work, depending on how much you actually intend on doing yourself. Piling too much on your plate could lead to many things being forgotten, not being completed or turning out absolutely horrible. Here are a couple of reasons why you may want to reconsider doing it yourself:
DIY Can Be Stressful
Planning a wedding is stressful enough, but adding extra work will cause even more stress on top of it. Trying to get all of the invitations constructed and delivered, designing and creating all of the centerpieces, making the programs, favors, and other décor items can lead to a time crunch, especially if you don’t have much help. Committing your time to too many things can be extremely overwhelming and may leave you regretting your DIY decision. Another thing to keep in mind is that you may become disappointed when important things such as the food, cake, or bouquet doesn’t turn out the way you expected.
DIY Can Be Difficult
If you’ve never crafted anything before, then doing a DIY wedding may be a difficult task for you to achieve. Not only will your inexperience lead to stress, but it may even cause you to waste money if you’ve messed something up. Chances are, you’ve seen different projects on Pinterest and thought, “I can do that!” but once you begin you’ve realized that it’s actually a bit more complicated than you realized. While this is no reason to deter you from trying, it’s good to know that if you aren’t good at making things by hand, that you should probably ask someone else to do it or have it done professionally.
While there are many other aspects to keep in mind when planning a DIY wedding, the most important thing to remember is time management. Do-it-yourself weddings can be such a great opportunity to show off your crafty money-saving skills, but be sure to start early enough so that you aren’t overwhelmed. If you don’t have the time to commit to multiple projects, cut down your workload so that you can eliminate stress and disappointment. All in all, it is important to make sure that your special day turns out exactly how you envision. Whether you plan on doing the entire wedding yourself or only doing specific projects, DIY can be a great way to incorporate some very memorable aspects to your day.
